9:00The TakeawayTMThe Takeaway is a national morning news program that invites listeners to be part of the American conversation. Hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, along with partners The New York Times, BBC World Service, WNYC, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston, deliver news and analysis and help you prepare for the day ahead.

The Federal Bureau of Land Management wants to auction gas and oil drilling rights in an Ohio state forest. WKSU’s Tim Rudell has more on a move that seems to have taken both state authorities and the public by surprise.

OwnershipThe state of Ohio owns forty-five hundred-acre Blue Rock State Forrest near Zanesville... above ground. But, in a hold-over from a “New Deal” rural land buy-up program during the Great Depression, the federal government owns most of what lies underneath.

Federal In the mid 1930s large swaths of eastern Ohio were deemed "poor land for farming" by the newly formed Resettlement Administration. The RA bought the farms, moved the families to government sponsored areas elswhere, and turned the land over for logging. Decades later, it was titled back to the State of Ohio; but only the surface property, not the mineral rights. Now, the feds want to generate revenue from those by selling oil and gas leases. An auction is planned for December.

Environmental concernsNathan Johnson of the Buckeye Forrest Council, which opposes drilling on state lands, says the public wasn’t properly informed. “There were no letters, there was no advertisement, just a small item buried on the BLM website.” Johnson said he only discovered it a week ago--and then more or less by accident. The posting was made in March and the public comment period it gave notice of expired in May.

ODNRBethany McKorkle of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said in a written statement that the agency also was not notified of the comment period. But in its own statement, the Bureau of Land Management insists it followed the rules.

More Public CommentNathan Johnson says he still hopes federal officials will recognize the need for public dialog and provide more time for comment.